2012 TALKER – “GOP elite sees Mitch Daniels as 2012 savior” – POLITICO’s Mike Allen captures the just-barely-veiled Republican panic driving the week: “Top Republicans are increasingly convinced that President Barack Obama will be easily reelected if stronger GOP contenders do not emerge, and some are virtually begging Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels to add some excitement to the slow-starting nomination race … Despairing Republican lobbyists say their colleagues don’t ask, ‘Who do you like?’ but instead, ‘Who do we back?’ ‘It’s not that they’re up in arms,’ said a central player in the GOP money machine. ‘It’s just that they’re depressed’ … Charlie Black, a longtime consultant to GOP presidential races, has been talking up Daniels around Washington and said he sees a 50-50 chance the reluctant Hoosier will run … Two of the nation’s best-known Republicans, in background interviews, predicted this week that Daniels would run, although wishful thinking seems to be at least part of the animating force behind the latest wave of pro-Daniels buzz.” http://politi.co/mEmcUL

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MORE – BACKUP PLANS – “Republicans are conjuring up far-fetched — even fanciful — scenarios, including the possibility that Jeb Bush will change his mind in late fall if the field still looks weak. George Will, the conservative columnist, and Bill Kristol, editor of The Weekly Standard, have openly fantasized about an entry by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan … New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie continues to shrewdly position himself as a potential entrant this fall if the candidates continue to flail, and top Republicans tell POLITICO he would make a strong vice presidential prospect if their favorite, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, decides against joining the ticket.” http://politi.co/mEmcUL

THE WORD FROM IND. – UNDETERRED AND UNDECIDED: Speaking with reporters in his home state Tuesday, Daniels said he still hasn’t made up his mind about 2012. But he shrugged off Mitt Romney’s $10.25 million Monday haul, saying the GOP frontrunner’s fundraising won’t factor into his own decision on the race. AP: “Indiana Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels said Tuesday that it won't be long before he makes a decision on whether he'll run for president in 2012. Daniels said he doesn't have a timetable for announcing the decision once it's made … ‘I guarantee you that if we did it, I think we'd have the best letterhead and plenty of money,’ Daniels said. ‘I just don't think these things get settled by money. ... I think it's going to be a lot more about the quality of ideas.’” http://bit.ly/kHFn07

BARBOUR NUDGES: Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour declared in Dallas yesterday that Daniels ought to get into the presidential campaign, giving his longtime friend another push toward 2012. CNN: “‘I think every good candidate ought to run, and I think Mitch would be an extremely good candidate,’ Barbour told CNN in a brief interview at the Republican National Committee’s state chairmen’s meeting … Daniels told reporters last week in Indianapolis that he had spoken with Barbour since he decided not to run for president, but would not say what the two discussed. Barbour also declined to reveal more about the discussions.” http://bit.ly/jLGexF

POPPING OVERNIGHT – FIVE OFF-PEAK ELECTIONS – This is a good week for underdogs, as a set of long-shot candidates in state, local and special elections far outperformed expectations last night. It’s too soon to say what the national implications might be, but recall that it was mayoral races in cities like Albuquerque and Seattle that first confirmed the 2010 campaign’s anti-incumbent mood. Let’s go to the videotape …

- In California’s 36th Congressional District, Republican Craig Huey made it into a runoff against Los Angeles City Councilwoman Janice Hahn, beating several Democrats in the open primary. The Los Angeles Times: “Huey squeaked past California Secretary of State Debra Bowen, a Democrat, by 206 votes … Huey, a conservative businessman who pumped $500,000 of his own money into the race, faces long odds in the runoff.” http://lat.ms/lxwKhm

- In Kentucky’s GOP gubernatorial primary, tea party-backed businessman Phil Moffett made a surprisingly good run at state Senate President David Williams, despite being widely outspent. The Courier-Journal: “Williams had about 48 percent, compared to 38 percent for Louisville businessman Phil Moffett … Williams, who has acknowledged he has ‘likeability’ issues, promised the GOP crowd in Lexington a tough race” against Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear.” http://bit.ly/kioKrc

- In a New Hampshire special election, Democrats captured a strongly GOP-leaning state House seat in a special election campaign. The Nashua Telegraph: “In a contest that some regarded as a barometer of the state’s current political climate, [Democrat Jennifer] Daler won all five towns in the district, topping [Republican Peter] Kucmas even in his home town of New Boston, which is also a traditional GOP stronghold.” http://bit.ly/lGXW06

- In the city of Jacksonville, the slimmest of majorities may have elected an African-American Democrat to lead Florida’s largest population center. The Times-Union: “The razor-thin margin had Democrat Alvin Brown leading Republican Mike Hogan by 603 votes before 10:45 p.m.” Adam Smith: “That is a big, big deal that nobody would have remotely predicted a few months ago.” http://bit.ly/jcBpI3 and http://bit.ly/j9Mwef

AND – NO SURPRISE HERE – It was a decent evening for one extreme non-underdog, too, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports: “Mayor Nutter on Tuesday defeated T. Milton Street Sr., the brother of his political nemesis and predecessor, making it all but certain that he will serve another four years as Philadelphia's mayor … Nutter, who took the stage with his wife, Lisa, by his side, dismissed the notion that the 24 percent vote that Street captured had any meaning beyond signifying tough economic times.” http://bit.ly/jAeWgr

COMING TODAY – THE ROMNEY CARD – Massachusetts Democrats will reach for a new weapon in their campaign against GOP Sen. Scott Brown, attempting to handcuff him politically to an unpopular former governor-turned-presidential candidate. From today’s release: “In a move right out of fellow Massachusetts Republican Mitt Romney’s playbook, Sen. Scott Brown now says that he didn’t really mean it when he told a group of local business leaders recently that he would vote for a Republican plan to dismantle Medicare. ‘It’s becoming very clear that Scott Brown is a Mitt Romney Republican,’ said Massachusetts Democratic Party spokesman Kevin Franck.” Background: http://bo.st/mMTM4e

THIS IS AN ACTUAL HEADLINE – “Gingrich hit with glitter at Minneapolis event” – AP: “GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich and his wife Callista were hit with glittery confetti by a protester Tuesday during the couple's appearance at a book-signing. The man approached the Gingriches during the signing at a downtown Minneapolis hotel, dumped a cracker box full of confetti on the pair and said, ‘Stop the hate!’ … Although authorities couldn't immediately confirm the man's identity, he appeared to be Nick Espinosa, a prankster who has disrupted at least two other political events in Minnesota.” http://bit.ly/lLhhCB Video from ABC: http://abcn.ws/lT9P4B

BUT SERIOUSLY, FOLKS – NEWT FLAILS – The former House speaker is still in all-out damage control mode after his comments questioning the Paul Ryan budget as a “radical” document. Your Morning Score correspondent, with Mike Allen: “Gingrich finally seemed to realize the seriousness of his political plight Tuesday, when he held three conference calls, made a personal apology to House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan and admitted in a Fox News appearance: ‘I made a mistake’ … For a host of party leaders, Gingrich seems to have proven with astonishing speed that he deserves his reputation as an undisciplined, self-destructive, shoot-from-the-lip politician … ‘The problem for Newt is, this is exactly what everybody who has ever worked for or around him said was his basic problem,’ said Rich Galen, the veteran Republican strategist and former Gingrich aide … The campaign, Galen added, is ‘close to being functionally over.’” http://politi.co/meMlU7

ON LOCKDOWN: Gingrich refused to answer a question from Fox News’s Greta Van Susteren Tuesday night about the debt – as much as $500,000 – that POLITICO reported he and his wife racked up at Tiffany’s. Quoth Newt: “I'm not commenting on stuff like that. I'm perfectly happy to talk about what we need to do for America and what we need to do to help Americans. But I frankly don't want to play the gotcha games in Washington.” http://politi.co/jCZ3ie

THE LUCKIEST MAN IN AMERICA: Meet Rick Santorum, the 2012 candidate who said yesterday that former POW and torture victim John McCain doesn’t understand coercive interrogation – and had that comment drowned out in a Gingrich- and Arnold Schwarzenegger-heavy news cycle. Santorum responded thusly to a question from Hugh Hewitt about McCain’s stance on interrogation: “This idea that we didn’t ask that question while Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was being waterboarded, he doesn’t understand how enhanced interrogation works … Maybe McCain has better information than I do, but from what I’ve seen, it seems pretty clear that but for these cooperative witnesses who were cooperative as a result of enhanced interrogations, we would not have gotten bin Laden.” http://bit.ly/iQkvbe

POLL OF THE DAY – LIFE AFTER HUCK: Romney and Sarah Palin sit atop the Republican field, according to Gallup, now that Mike Huckabee has pulled out of the running. In a Huckabee-less race, Romney pulls 20 percent to Palin’s 18 percent, followed by Gingrich at 8 percent and Michele Bachmann at 5 percent. Frank Newport says it’s all a name ID game, at this point: “Palin, Gingrich, and Romney are the three best-known candidates, and they top the list of Republicans' preferences … Ron Paul and Bachmann are the only other potential candidates with name recognition above 50%. They are also next in line in terms of Republican nomination support.” http://bit.ly/kkQC40

WATCH THIS ONE: “Bachmann's image among those who recognize her is as positive as that of any candidate tested. Bachmann has low unfavorables, similar to Romney's. Bachmann generates as high a percentage strongly favorable as anyone tested in this analysis.” She told Fox Tuesday: “Our phones have been ringing off the hook, our Facebook has been lit up, our donations are pouring in … We had announced earlier that we would be looking at a June entry data for a decision one way or another about this race … Possibly, we may move that up.” http://bit.ly/kkQC40 and http://on.wsj.com/ivWagI

OBAMA IN BOSTON – From the White House guidance: “In the afternoon, the President will travel to Boston, Massachusetts … While in Boston, the President will deliver remarks at two DNC events. The first is pooled for TV, open to pre-credentialed correspondents and still photographers and the second is print pool only.” The Boston Globe uses the trip as a hook for a profile of Obama-advising Bay Stater Stephanie Cutter: http://bo.st/mTJVnw

KNIVES OUT IN ILLINOIS – GOP WOE: Democrats in the president’s home state are aiming to bump off three or four GOP congressmen by aggressively redrawing the state’s House map, Cain’s Chicago Business reports. Greg Hinz: “Republican Robert Dold's 10th District ‘pretty much disappears,’ one source said … [I]ndividual sources say GOP incumbents Aaron Schock of Peoria and Tim Johnson of Champaign may be thrown together. Either Mr. Schock or Rockford's Donald Manzullo also could be put in a district with Moline Republican Bobby Schilling.” http://bit.ly/iedwEg

NOT ACTING LIKE A CANDIDATE: Former Wisconsin Sen. Russ Feingold accused several of his former colleagues – including Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill and Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman – of falling pretty to “corporate influence and corruption” in an email to supporters. That drew the kind of response from McCaskill that could make it awkward for both to share DSCC resources next year: “McCaskill … said she was angry that former Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) singled her out for “shame” in an email to his new liberal political action committee … ‘It is disappointing to me that he would take potshots at me from the sidelines, without even having the courtesy of picking up the phone and calling me,’ she said.” http://bit.ly/mQ2aom

CODA – QUOTE OF THE DAY: “Voters knew what they needed to know on this topic with Arnold Schwarzenegger, and honestly they just didn’t care.” – Former Gray Davis adviser Peter Ragone, on the Governator’s sordid personal life http://nyti.ms/k6yaN

Authors:

About The Author

Alexander Burns is a senior political reporter for POLITICO. During the 2012 campaign, he co-authored POLITICO’s Burns and Haberman blog, which was widely recognized as one of the authoritative resources on the presidential election. Prior to that, Burns created the daily Morning Score political tip sheet and edited the POLITICO44 page. A graduate of Harvard College, where he edited the Harvard Political Review, Burns has appeared on television and radio as a political analyst and has been a guest speaker at New York University, the University of Kansas’s Dole Institute and the Harvard Kennedy School’s Institute of Politics, among other schools.